


Pumpkins and...stuff

by bunnysworld



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-28
Updated: 2013-10-28
Packaged: 2017-12-30 18:32:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1022004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunnysworld/pseuds/bunnysworld
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin goes to Leon's place to carve pumpkins</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pumpkins and...stuff

**Author's Note:**

> Tambear betaed this. Thank you!

Merlin hauled the pumpkin to the patio. Leon had invited them all for his annual pumpkin-carving/pre-Halloween barbeque. Knowing Leon from work, Merlin had no clue who ‘them all’ were, but he was looking forward to everything Leon had told him about the carving. Maybe, for once, he’d have a nicely carved jack-o-lantern and not some oddly shaped wannabe-scary-whatever.

“Merlin!” Leon greeted him, wearing a huge apron over his clothes. “Put the pumpkin here. Wow, that’s one monster you got there!”

Putting the pumpkin on the table, Merlin greeted everyone with a wave as Leon introduced them. 

“You know Lance already, the artist over there is Elyan, and the big guy is Percy.”

Merlin smiled at the dopey look Leon threw the huge blond. So this was the mysterious Percy Leon couldn’t stop talking about. 

Leon explained where to find drinks and that dinner would be ready in about an hour, which would leave them enough time to work on the pumpkins. He showed Merlin the tools and knives and left him to his jack-o-lantern. 

First, Merlin looked at what the others did. Lance had gone for the simple eyes-mouthwithteeth-combination while Elyan carved some complicated looking pattern that didn’t make much sense yet. Percy seemed to be carving a heart into his pumpkin. Aw.

Just as Merlin reached for a marker to put a design on the fruit to work on, the door opened again.

“Hey guys.” 

Gwaine, another bloke from work, breezed in, accompanied by a gorgeous blond, both carrying pumpkins and a six-pack of beer. 

Putting a smooch on Leon’s cheek, Gwaine shoved the beer into his hands. “Guys, this is Arthur. He didn’t have better plans tonight, so I thought I’d bring him along.”

When the blond put his pumpkin on the table and smiled at Merlin, all he could do was stare. He’d never seen eyes so intense before. Too bad the bloke was with Gwaine. Merlin almost sighed. Why was it that the interesting ones were always taken? So he smiled back a bit more shakily than intended and concentrated on the task at hand. What did he want his jack-o-lantern to look like?

“I saw this great photo on the internet!” Gwaine exclaimed. “I’m sure you’ve all seen it before. The pumpkin on the stairs? That looks like it’s sick from all the beer it drank? With the empty beer bottles around? The sludge from the inside coming out through its mouth like it throws up?”

All of them nodded, they’d all seen it, it was years old. 

“This is what I’m going for this year! So don’t throw the yucky stuff out, I still need it!”

“I doubt your landlady will be thrilled if she finds pumpkin goop on her stairs.” Percy pointed out.

“She’s on vacation for two weeks, she’ll never find out.” Gwaine beamed and before he even gave his pumpkin another look, he helped himself to a beer. 

“What will you do?”

Merlin startled when Arthur looked at him. Damn those blue eyes. “I haven’t really decided. My carving skills aren’t very sophisticated. I guess it’ll just be the plain old design.”

“Nothing wrong with that.” Arthur smiled and reached for the huge knife to cut off the top of his fruit. 

For a moment, Merlin just watched him work before he caught himself and turned back to the orange monster in front of him. He drew a jack-o-lantern-face on it that looked half scary, half funny and reached for the knife as Arthur put it down. He froze when their fingers touched. “Sorry,” he mumbled, but Arthur just smiled and reached for a spoon. 

“Where do we put the slimy stuff?”

Gwaine rubbed against him from behind and put a smooch in his neck. “I have an idea or two about the ‘slimy stuff’,” he whispered loud enough for everyone to hear. 

While Merlin blushed, Arthur just laughed. “You big old tease. But you know those times are long gone. No need to warm up things that didn’t work out in the first place.”

Oh, that was interesting. So Gwaine and Arthur weren’t an item anymore? Merlin smiled as he tried to cut the top of the pumpkin off.

“Here, let me show you.” A large hand wrapped around Merlin’s and the angle he held the knife with changed a bit. “If you cut it like that, the lid can’t fall off.”

Merlin’s insides felt exactly like the icky stuff that Percy across from him spooned out of his pumpkin.   
“’kay,” he croaked out, “thanks.” A light blush spread on his cheeks, he’d carved pumpkins before, and yet he was behaving like a bloody teenage girl.

He tried not to look over to Arthur too often and just work on his jack-o-lantern when all of a sudden he heard Arthur yell “Fuck!” a fraction of a second before the sludgy goo hit his cheek. 

While the others laughed and Leon ran for paper towels, Merlin jumped back and tried to paw the stuff off his face and prevent that it slid down his throat. Arthur babbled excuses, that his spoon got stuck, that he used too much force and the stuff came off and catapulted away and tried to help, which was no help at all. 

Before Leon even made it back with the paper towels, Merlin had scooped up a large portion from inside his own pumpkin and flung it at Arthur.

“Turnabout is fair!” he laughed when it hit Arthur’s forehead and slid down the side of his nose. 

“My revenge will be a horrible one!” Arthur grabbed his spoon again to get more ammunition. 

It didn’t take long and the others had joined in and slimy pumpkin-insides flew across Leon’s garden. They all shrieked or ‘ewwwww’-ed when the stuff hit them but most of the time they giggled and laughed. Even Leon gave in after trying to restore the order for a while and was in a serious fight with Percy that left him with pumpkin seeds in his hair and on his t-shirt. 

Merlin shuddered when Arthur managed to place a spoonful of pumpkin goo in his neck and it slowly made its way down under his t-shirt. Oh, he would get revenge for this! Without thinking, he loaded his spoon again, grabbed Arthur by the belt and shoveled the slimy stuff down Arthur’s pants. 

Arthur made a face but couldn’t stop laughing and all of a sudden, Merlin noticed how close he was. It was like in one of them kitschy chick flicks where time stood still when two people looked into each other’s eyes. 

The spell of the moment was broken when Gwaine attacked everyone with the assembled pumpkin seeds-and-sludge mixture from the bucket they’d had under the table.

The fight finally slowed down, all of them covered more or less. 

“We all look as if your pumpkin puked on us, Gwaine.” Elyan commented dryly before he pulled a camera out of the back pocket of his sodded jeans and took some photos of them all. 

“There’s showers in the guest rooms and the master bedroom. Let me get you fresh towels and fresh clothes.”

While Merlin waited for his turn, he helped remove the biggest mess from the table and the surroundings. As he turned, he felt fingers in his hair.

“Wait, you got seeds there.” 

He shivered as Arthur plucked the pumpkin seeds from his hair and tossed them into the bucket. “There you go, all set.”

“Thanks.” He smiled and the smile turned into a grin. “And thanks for starting this. We might owe Leon a fresh painting of this side of the house if this stuff sticks too much.” 

“Oh,” Arthur laughed, “don’t worry about it. I started it, I’ll cover it.” He stepped really close and Merlin’s heart was beating faster. He didn’t imagine this, Arthur was flirting with him, right? 

Just as Merlin tried to lean in a bit closer and signal that he wouldn’t mind a kiss, Lance came out of the house. “Your turn, Merlin.”

Did Arthur really sigh at that? Merlin grinned and made his way into the house. He needed to get out of the soggy clothes and wash the goo off his skin. 

Merlin smiled when he saw the stuff stacked on the bed. Leon had put a collection of sweatpants, t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies and socks next to the towels. He grabbed a towel and made his way into the bathroom. 

The hot water on his skin felt good and after he’d scrubbed off anything that felt remotely like pumpkin, Merlin just stood under the spray. 

He didn’t hear the door opening and closing again and jumped when he felt the shower curtain moving. His mouth hung open when he saw Arthur standing there. A very naked Arthur. 

“Wow,” was all his brain could come up with. 

“Thought we could save some water and shower together.” Arthur winked but didn’t come closer. 

Okay, that was probably the most forward thing Merlin had ever experienced, but he noticed he didn’t mind. His body had reacted to Arthur the moment he stepped into the yard. And even though he usually liked to get to know the people he had sex with first, this was too strong. He needed to have him. 

So he closed the little space between them and crushed his lips against Arthur’s. He moaned into Arthur’s mouth as their bodies pressed together and their hardening cocks made contact. “Fuck,” he whispered.

Arthur nodded and spun Merlin around. 

Damn, that was quick. But yeah, that was it. Just some quick and dirty sex in someone else’s shower. When his heartbeat would slow down later, there was still enough time to think about it. 

He wriggled his arse, happy that he heard the wrapping of a condom being opened and hissed at the shove of latex-covered prick against his body. Some lube would have been nice, but the shower might have washed it away anyhow and there was just no time. And he was so horny now that it wasn’t really needed. Another point to worry about later. 

It was hot and sexy and Merlin came harder than ever before. And then Arthur was gone as quickly as he had appeared. If it weren’t for the adrenaline still singing through his body and the slight soreness, it might have been a figment of his imagination. 

Slowly he toweled his hair and found some clothes he didn’t drown in. 

As he made his way downstairs, he wasn’t sure what to do next. Just go over to Arthur and kiss him in front of everybody? Or play it cool as if nothing had happened? He decided on the later and when he reached the living room, Leon waved him over. “Food’s in the kitchen, we’ve moved everything in here, it’s too cold to stay outside.”

So Merlin filled a plate with all the yummy stuff Leon had dished up, even though he wasn’t really hungry. He sat the far end of the table, away from Arthur. Each time he looked up he saw Arthur looking at him and blushed, busying himself with the food again. 

Maybe it was better if he excused himself after dinner and went home. This was awkward. 

When he went to put his plate away and get another beer, he felt someone following him into the kitchen and froze when he noticed it was Arthur. 

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

“You’re not comfortable with what happened in the shower. I didn’t mean to spook you.” 

Merlin didn’t know what to say. 

“But I wanted you as soon as I laid eyes on you this afternoon.”

“And you just take what you want.” Merlin hadn’t really meant it to come out that way. It wasn’t as if Arthur took something he was not willing to give. “I mean…I was surprised, but…,” a smile slowly crept onto his face, “damn, that was hot.”

Arthur laughed, stepped close, pulled Merlin into his arms and kissed him again. 

When they broke for air, they just stood there and looked at each other.

“What are we going to do with this now?” Merlin chuckled nervously. 

“I’m glad that you feel there’s a ‘this’, too. How about we just grab some fresh drinks, go out there, sit together and talk?”

Merlin’s lower lip came out in a pout. 

“Okay, and snog?” 

“That’s better.” Merlin grinned.

And so Arthur put his arm around Merlin’s waist as they left the kitchen to find a seat by the fireplace and didn’t let go until they both had to leave hours later.


End file.
